


Carrot Cake

by Cuppatea13



Series: The Stories of Arlie [7]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Black Widow appreciation, F/M, Gen, Interlude, happy tasha day, yummy food
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 07:53:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3373670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cuppatea13/pseuds/Cuppatea13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Natasha's Day, what does the family get up to? Nothing much- but you can bet it'll involve food. (Main story is: Reliant, this is an interlude.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Carrot Cake

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for all the love, guys! Please, remember to review!

**September 21st, 2008 (Natasha)**

"So do you want to go out to eat or stay in?" Arlie asks as soon as Clint and I arrive at her apartment. Phil is only a few minutes behind us- he had some paperwork for Fury to do and told the two of us to start without him. "We're celebrating your day now since we missed the  _day_  day because you we off doing super-secret spy things."

"How about we go to that Russian place you love so much, Nat?" Clint asks as he begins his usual ritual of going through his sister's fridge (he claims it's for snacks, but really it's to check she's got everything she needs and is eating well), her mail (to check for building announcements about anything he might want to check out later), and does a general survey of her apartment (to assess  _what_ , exactly, I still haven't figured out, but it might just be the fact he's paranoid when it comes to Arlie's safety and is looking for bombs- I wouldn't put it past him).

"That sounds wonderful," I say, surprised to find myself rather excited about celebrating my day with the Bartons and Phil. I've seen Christmas and Birthdays and New Year's with these people- and I'm honored they think I'm worth celebrating.

"Good, let me just grab your cake," says Arlie as she dashes off to the kitchen. Clint returns to my side and gives me a smile as he pulls out his phone to tell Phil where to meet us when the paperwork's done.

Arlie's back with a cake that does not smell like quadruple chocolate. Clint notices as well.

"Hey- that's not my quadruple chocolate," he accuses his sister. She stucks her tongue out at him and rolls her eyes.

"No, it's not. Because it's  _Tasha's_  day, so it's  _Tasha's_  cake. Now let's get a move on, bird brain."

We arrive in the restaurant and take our usual seats, with one left open for Phil. Clint begins ordering food and the waitress (she recognizes us now since we've come so many times) begins smiling and laughing at his Russian- I've been teaching him and while his accent is great, his grammar is terrible. Arlie doesn't even try Russian, just asking me to order for her.

Phil arrives half-way through the meal and orders something in passable Russian (he learned years ago in school and has the opposite problem of Clint- great grammar, a terrible accent). Two hours pass before any of us notice and the waitress takes away our empty plates (Clint finishes everything anyone else can't fit into their stomach, Phil makes a joke about his legs being hollow), then Arlie pulls out her cake and uncovers it.

It's covered in a light white frosting and smells delicious (despite not being chocolate). The waitress brings over a knife and some plates for us and Arlie begins slicing while the trio sing Happy Birthday to me.

Clint laughs because I actually blushed.

Arlie hands me the first slice of cake and I can see it's carrot cake with vanilla icing- and delicious.

I have no idea how she even found out that was my favorite.


End file.
